DREAMETTE AND FERAL UPDATE

I got a big surprise this morning when the Mama opened up my mail – I’ve been chosen as a Dreamette!!! I can’t believe it; I must have a fairy catmother or something. First I was chosen out of a dozen other ferals to come live in the Big House with the pawrents and Sleeper and Samhain. And then Snow, who is one of the sweetest and handsomest young kits on Catster, chose ME over lots of other prettier cats to be his valentine for Valentine’s Day (and we’re STILL friends even after he’s gotten to know me – MOL). And now I’m a Dreamette – will wonders never cease! Thank you DreamTeam guys for choosing me for this honor!!!

On a soberer note, this has made me feel somewhat better, because the pawrents trapped another of the blackies last night to take in for spaying. We all of us get a little nervous and jumpy when this happens. The Mama, too. She doesn’t like that anyfur should have to stay in a cage all night, but at least it had a full meal – a double meal actually, because it had its regular dinner and then had sardines when it went in the trap! Hey - I don’t remember getting sardines! And then the Papa put the cage in our little greenhouse covered with a blanket where it would be out of the cool night air and no other animals would bother it. Though, as for the coolness of the night – it’s been amazingly warm for almost a week now. The pawrents don’t remember it ever being this warm for so long in March! Can this be Spring already?

Cross your paws that all goes well for this latest feral. The Mama believes, but isn’t sure, that this one with the lighter blaze on its chest (not Star, still can’t catch him!) is a female, and of age to get pregnant for sure. There are enough of my relatives out there already; best to stop the cycle NOW.

A KITTENS-R-US TAG GAME!!!

Griswold and I came up with a new tag game. Well, it was Grissie’s idea for a diary, but I said “Why not make it a tag game?” So here it is: What are three of your fondest kitten memories? When you’ve written your three, then tag one or two other kitties to take a turn. Anyone else who wants to play, feel free to jump in!

The best memory for me is when I first got the pawrents to love on me - I knew they were going to let me come inside then and have a furever home.

The second best memory would be when Samhain finally played with me! Then I knew I was truly part of the family!

The third memory is when they showed my how to use the catdoor to go into the cattery - WOW!!! That was kewl!!!

Now I pick two of my new friends, and I’m gonna cheat and pick a third!:
Talli
Alta
Pharaoh Purrince Tao

FEARLESS O'FLAHERTY AND THE POT OF GOLD - THE CONCLUSION

“Oh, please, won’t ye let me up?” the leprechaun pleaded. “I can do ye no harm; and mayhaps I can help ye!”

Fearless started to lift her foot, when Samhain quickly spoke: “No! Not yet! I don’t trust him; I bet he’ll be gone in a flash as soon as we step away! And I want to know how he can help us.”

The creature sighed and said, “Well, at least ye can let me sit up and get me face out o’ the dirt.” Fearless glanced at Samhain and at her elder sisfur’s nod, she slowly lifted her paw, keeping her claws latched onto the back of the green coat.

The little man straightened his hat with dignity, brushed his coat and settled himself into a crossed-legged position on the ground.

“Well? We’re waiting,” Samhain said irritably, when the leprechaun didn’t say anything else.

“I suppose ye want me pot o’ gold,” he said resignedly. “They always want me gold,” he sniffed.

“What would WE want with gold?” Sleeper asked, laughing again merrily. “What else do you have to offer?”

The leprechaun looked a little nonplussed.
“Well, I can put a charm over your…tal-is-man” (he sounded out the word slowly) “- so that no one will ever know it’s there, including others of my kind.”

Samhain considered for a moment and nodded, stepping away from the corner where the Ganesha statue lay. The little man closed his eyes, and muttering words in the same strange dialect as before, waved his hands at the figurine. Dirt flew up and covered the talisman from view. In a moment, it was impossible to tell that anyone had ever disturbed the soil. He turned, smiling smugly and looked back pointedly to where Fearless had her claws snagged in his coat.

“I want your hat...please!” Fearless blurted out, still hanging on.

The creature looked surprised, and then indignant. “I already granted yer wish!” he cried angrily, struggling halfheartedly against Fearless’s grip.

“It wasn’t MY wish,” Fearless answered, with a sly smile. “And I’m the one who’s caught you!”

“Hmmph!” the leprechaun snorted, disgruntled – then, as suddenly grinned, and said loudly, “Then, TAKE IT!”

As Fearless loosened her claws to grab the hat, the green man disappeared in a little puff of wind and sparkling light! A disembodied voice sounded from somewhere over their heads, “Now ye have TWO magic tools. Be careful o’ the hat, mo chailin! Ye only have to wish it, and ye will be invisible to all mortal eyes. But, at a price: for the next two days after, ye’ll sleep like the dead!” Then he was well and truly gone.

“Wow!” Fearless breathed, looking with interest at the wee green top hat. “I wonder if I’ll ever dare to use it?”

Sleeper looked at Samhain in amused, mock alarm; Samhain just rolled her eyes.

THE END…OR IS IT?

FEARLESS O'FLAHERTY AND THE POT OF GOLD

Fearless came suddenly awake in the dark of the early morning hours. Not that this in itself was unusual – Fearless was always up early for one reason or another. But this time it wasn’t because she heard the footsteps of one of the pawrents on their way to the bathroom. And it wasn’t because she was hungry or because she heard an owl hoot somewhere outside, or a moth fluttering its wings against the window pane. This was something else.

Fearless yawned and stretched. She scratched her ear with a hind foot and licked her shoulder thoughtfully. For a moment she contemplated jumping the curled form of Sleeper on the chair, then dismissed it. She’d only be grumpy; they didn’t call her “Sleeper” for nothing!

Silently she jumped from the couch to the window sill and stuck her head out the catdoor into the cattery. The waning moon, though days past the full, shone brightly through the bare branches of the walnut tree, painting the ground with contorted stripes of shadow. All was still, and the air, though far from the frigid single digit temperatures of only a week ago, was cold and crisp.

There! She heard it again: a faint scraping and scratching sound…Where? Ah, a little to the left behind the cattery tree! Fearless sniffed the air – something…strange there. Slowly, she eased her body out into the cattery, and shifting her weight noiselessly, she leaned her head over the edge of the platform to peer down into the dark corner. What she saw filled her with wonder!

Stooping with his back to Fearless, was a tiny man in a long green frock coat. He had a tall green top hat and little black boots with gold buckles, and though his back was turned, she could see he had curly, unruly red hair sticking out from under his hat brim, and a long flowing beard that brushed the ground as he stared absorbed at whatever he had unearthed in the corner of the cattery, and which was now giving off a faint green glow.

Fearless sprang at the little man, and though he was startlingly fast, she had the element of surprise; in the next moment he was squirming and squealing, “Let me down, let me down!” She shifted him from her mouth to the ground, where she held him firmly with one clawed foot.

Two things happened in quick succession: Samhain with Sleeper behind her, burst through the cattery door, and in the corner, the magic Talisman of Siddhartha blazed into life like emerald fire! Samhain hissed and leaped to cover the miniature Ganesha statuette with her body. “You dare!” she growled. The funny little man turned his head up, and after a glimpse of her bared fangs, grew quiet. [SEE SAMHAIN'S DIARY - COMING OF AGE, PARTS I-VII, AND SLEEPER'S DIARY - CONTINUING ADVENTURES, PARTS I-XV FOR THE ORIGIN AND FURTHER REFERENCES TO THE TALISMAN OF SIDDHARTHA].

“Ye have a ----,” he pronounced some incomprehensible word in a slightly muffled voice as Fearless pressed him harder against the ground.
“I don’t know what that is,” Samhain snapped, “but if you’re referring to the Talisman, it was a gift from someone very special to me, and I don’t tolerate ANYONE TOUCHING IT.” The last words were spoken in a soft emphatic voice, so frightening in its intensity that even Fearless and Sleeper drew back nervously from the slim black cat.

“I didn’t touch it,” the little man said almost sulkily.
“Yet,” Fearless added, curious herself about the figurine of which she had heard much, but never actually seen. And - despite her name - instinctively knew better NOT to ask about.

“’Tis a magic thing of power ye have – are ye wizards? Ye feel not like any wizards I’ve ever known,” he said, craning his neck awkwardly, to get a better view of the girls.

“We’re not wizards!” Sleeper said with a laugh, “we’re cats!”

“Sure, so I would have thought, but here ye have a ----” he repeated the strange word from before, “and there be something else about ye…” he gave Sleeper a shrewd appraising look with bright green eyes.
“Ye’ve been touched somehow by magic; I should know, shouldn’t I?”

“What ARE you then?” Fearless asked him.

“A leprechaun, o’ course!"

TO BE CONTINUED...

NEW FRIENDS

I gets to write something this time, 'cause I haven't got to write nothing in like FUREVER!
Anyways, we have some new friends we wanted to tell you about.
First there's Willie and his sisfurs Shadow, Lucky, and Alta. Willie's like this really cool orangey color and he has a possessed tail - is that cool or what??? And his sisfurs are really sweet, and Alta only has one eye - wow!!! When it's "talk like a pirate" day, she can wear a patch for reals! (But we'll have to tell her not to have a parrot on her shoulder 'cause the Tabbies might try to shoot it off with their cannon - we all know how they feel about burds!)

Then our other new friends are Boo Boo and his sisfur Talli. Talli is a pretty blackie just like ME, and Boo Boo got Diary of the Day yesterday, so maybe you already saw him. Boo Boo is like REALLY OLD - kinda like you, Uncle Gumpy, and he has some health isshoes though he says he's feeling OK right now. (If his shoes are bothering him, he should just stop wearing them, don't you think?)

So, that's my diary. Hope you'll all go say hello to our new friends!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

Just to get this straight - the Mama is not a cartoonist! But I, the Fearless One, offer so many instances of inspiration, that she decided to try her hand at it.
So...
Introducing "FEARLESS IN THE FACE OF DANGER":

FEARLESS CARTOON

I HAVE A VALENTINE!

Snow has asked me to be his valentine - how cool is that?!!! Of course I wanna be your valentine!!! I have a confession to make: it was me who sent you the heart giftie saying you were cute - 'cause you ARE! And I'm so honored 'cause you're a Dreamboat-in-Training and I'm not anything special - just one of many nameless black ferals who happened to get lucky and get a furever home. I haven't got any zealies to send you now, but you have my heart! (blush)

P.S.:
This doesn't mean we have to be all mushy though, does it? I still prefer wrestling and chasing and play-fighting!

Your Valentine,
Fearless

MY SECRET VALENTINE!

Wow! I got a secret admirer, too! Someone left me a heart giftie and didn't sign their name. I wouldn't have thought there was anything to all this lovey-dovey business, but that's kinda special, isn't it, getting a secret heart? (giggle) Maybe I'd like to have a valentine after all...I wonder who it could be?

FEARLESS IMMORTALIZED

Guess what the Mama brought in from the mailbox tonight…Me!!!! Look at this wonderful figurine that we got from Tigger’s dad’s shop The Cat Fun Attic:

the Fearless Wonder

Isn’t that just the cat’s whiskers??? That's me and my food bowl with my mousie offering to the Ceiling Cat. We LOVE it - thank you, Tigger’s dad!

Oh, and we found this curious item with it. We don't know where it came from, surely not from Tigger’s dad. Does anyone know what this may be?

Tigger - Emperor of the World

OPERATION KIT-NAP #2

As some of you may have already read, Little Grey Tabby passed the grade at the Cat Whisperer’s and got her furever home. Way to go, Little Grey!!! So the pawrents were given the go-ahead to catch the next kitty for socialization training.

It should be mentioned that the kittens deemed eligible for this “program” are the ones the pawrents had already trapped, had spayed and released again. There were 6 of these that were kittens approximately my age – now about 5 months old. The others were adults and decidedly more wild than the kittens. Though, we want to add that we don’t think they are beyond taming, but the pawrents have as much as they can handle with the 3 of us inside girls. They are shaking their heads now in dumb amazement that, after having FINALLY raised Sleeper and Samhain from tiny kittens to a somewhat more laid-back maturity – they took ANOTHER kitten into the household – ME! They sure won the lottery with me, huh?

And speaking of winning the lottery - drum roll, please:
The winner this morning is roly-poly Friendly Blackie! Not sure if F.B. is a male or a female – the pawrents only know that it’s one of those who’s been spayed. There’s another very like it but with a slimmer face that has allowed the Mama to touch it fleetingly – maybe it will get it’s chance eventually…

Anyway, after having a “no-go” on Christmas Eve – the Mama having hesitated before trying to scoop up a kitten, so they all turned wary – this morning she walked out casually with the food. Friendly Black went to the same spot he usually takes to eat, and the Mama leaned down, stroked his back once, then quickly gathered him up and spun around to the waiting carrier (which has been sitting on the porch for days – the kittens all play in it). He meowed once or twice, but the pawrents covered the carrier with a blanket and he quieted down.

He (or she) is on their way to the Cat Whisperer now, with a can of cat food (he DID miss his breakfast, after all!) Our good wishes and purrs go with you, little one - that you settle into your furever home soon!